Andy Hoar's Blog

When we think about the Thanksgiving weekend and online sales, we’re conditioned to think "Cyber Monday." But now there’s another online sales story to report -- Black Friday.

While Cyber Monday saw a record $1.25B in online sales this year, a somewhat underreported story was that Black Friday also set a record by bringing in $816MM– or nearly the same amount spent on Cyber Monday just two years ago.

Increased Black Friday online sales are being driven by:

A behavioral shift among consumers. In 2010, 49% of consumers surveyed after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend said that they shopped less in stores on Thanksgiving weekend because they were shopping online instead. In addition, an increasing number of online shoppers report that they are now pre-shopping online for Black Friday deals.

High traffic throughout the weekend. This year, Thanksgiving Day took the top spot for holiday weekend online traffic, but Black Friday finished second -- edging out Cyber Monday by a nose. Data from Experian Hitwise shows that traffic to the top 500 online retailers increased by 2% YOY on Black Friday to more than 170 million unique visits.

The consumer perception that better deals can be found online. 58% of US online adults say that they are more price-conscious today than they were a year ago. 48% maintained that they found better values and deals online.

So Black Friday, a traditional bastion of impressive offline sales, has now emerged as a real force in the online sales game. If we see a similar 26% increase in online spending again next year, Black Friday will surpass the $1B mark in online sales. At that point, perhaps eBusiness professionals will start referring to Black Friday as “Cyber Friday?”